If you, like me, suffer from the nagging cold air
that always manages to creep onto the back of your neck at the base of
your helmet when riding the GL1800 or GL1500, then you know what I
mean by BACKDRAFT! The problem arises after a bit of riding,
mostly on cold days, but sometimes even any day. The wind from
the backdraft slips between your helmet and collar aimed primarily to
the area of your skull's occipital bone (see below). This causes the trapezious
muscles to contract. It then wends its way into the mastoid
process which causes the sternocleidomastoid muscles to tighten up as
well. Plus, by conduction from the chilled skull's mastoid
process, it can also affect the inner ear and move on to the
sinuses.... If this is all too "tech" for you, let's just say
this: -- You ride; you stop; you have a headache, stiff neck, shoulder
pain in the mid-back area, sometimes ear pain & noise (ringing) and likewise sinus
problems. It's all because of the BACKDRAFT!

We
can fix that! And it's really easy, inexpensive, unobtrusive
and, by golly, it works!

Click any pic to enlarge - close window
when done viewing.

MY FIRST SOLUTION - NOVELTY HELMET:Click here for
scrollable printable pic.As well as all the other stuff, I have an old football injury to my
cervical vertebrae which makes wearing a heavy helmet difficult to
begin with and the added BACKDRAFT was a real problem, a BIG pain! My first
solution was to wear a "novelty" helmet with two baseball
caps "Sherlock Holmes" style. I would put one cap on
the correct way for a sun visor and add another cap on top with the
bill facing back for the backdraft problem. It works and I do
enjoy the air and the feeling of freedom this solution affords. I
actually only wore the helmet to keep the ball caps in place.
But, safety goes out the window needless to say. When I would
wear a "real" helmet (especially when it's cold), the weight
combined with the BACKDRAFT.. well, I already said that. Picture
is shown of the contrivance I usually wear when riding the Wing.
This helmet has been painted with American Accents Stone Creations
spray paint (Lowes, Home Depot) with a coat of clear over it.

NOW TO THE MEATY STUFF!Click here for
scrollable printable pic.I tried many solutions from scarves, collars, to even a stocking cap
with the top cut off and pulled down around my neck for use with a
"real" helmet. Nothing
worked. The problem here was that air still snuck in plus, whatever I
had put on got cold then transferred the cold to a larger area of my
neck and made the problem worse. The solution was something that
blocked the backdraft but did not contact the skin or collar. I was
talking to my wingman Dave and he said, "if only there was a way
to put some plastic bent out on the back of there....."
What on earth would fit the bill? Next day, as I was thinking about it, I remembered that he was wearing
a helmet visor! Eurika! So I grabbed a $3.00 visor at the bike shop
a few days later and set to work. First, I drilled out the snaps. Why?
Because the snaps put the visor about ¼ of an inch away from the
helmet leaving a nice place for air to sneak in. I grabbed the
snaps with a vice (vice grips work too) and drilled out the snap with
a ¼ drill bit. Now, how to attach it? What on earth would fit
the bill?

DUCT TAPE!Click here for
scrollable printable pic.HA! Well, not really. The duct tape was for experimentation
only. Didn't really want to look like a redneck and my neck
wasn't red anyway, it was blue from the cold. But, I needed to
get the placement correct on the back of the helmet before any
permanent attachment. I recommend if you decide to try this, you
do the same. Experiment then make it permanent. But you
don't really want it to be permanent so when you get the placement
right with duct tape, mark the location, then go on to use....

VELCRO!Click here for
scrollable printable pic.I scrounged around the wife's sewing room and found a nice roll of
sticky back ¾ inch black VELCRO. Just right! I chose to
put the HOOK part onto the visor because the hook stuff grabs onto
lint and whatnot and if it's on the helmet without the visor in place,
it'll grab your collar too. First, clean the helmet and visor with
Isopropyl alcohol so the sticky will stick. I found the best way
to line the hook part up is to set the visor on the table with the hook Velcro
as pictured and slowly stick the center of the Velcro to the center of
the visor then work your way out.

GET IT READY FOR PLACEMENT TO THE BACK OF THE HELMET:Click here for
scrollable printable pic.The best way to set up placement of Velcro is to first join the LOOP part to
the hook part. After you line up the visor and mark your helmet where
it goes, remove the sticky back protector from the loop part, flex the
visor out at the ends, start in the center and stick the thing
where you want it. Run a hair dryer over it to "set"
the adhesive and let it cool (put it in the frig if the wife is
amenable). DONE!

HERE'S HOW IT LOOKS IN PLACE AND IT WORKS!Click here for
scrollable printable pic.Mount the visor on low enough so that it will go over your collar but high
enough so it will not
interfere with head turning. Cool thing about a visor is that
it's curved. It will not pick up any air from the front to
direct it underneath, it will not hamper the "head in the
direction of your turn" proper riding technique and does not snag
on anything much at all. The only thing it does prevent is stargazing which
you shouldn't do while riding anyway! Here's a view of it with
my FIRSTGEAR riding jacket.

A VIEW OF THE LOOP IN PLACE ON MY HELMETS:Click here for
scrollable printable pic.I found it necessary to trim some of the "edge guard" from
my HJC open face, but no trim necessary on my Shoei full face.

Here are side views of the finished product on both my HJC open face
and Shoei full face. Note that I used only one visor which can
be swapped from helmet to helmet. Note also that the visor must
be FLEXIBLE so that easy removal is possible - just
start at one end and zzzzip! The use of Velcro serves another
purpose: Should you be unfortunate enough to have an accident, the
visor will likely just pop off, preventing any injury from it.

Longer visors will help too.

A vinyl alternative which works
just fine! Click here for
scrollable printable pic.My new alternative
is a mini ghutra which works pretty good too.
If you need more protection or cannot find a long enough bill/visor you
can make one from some vinyl material. Here, I use a left over from when
I was building a curtain for my cargo trailer. It's 11 inches long
and 6 inches deep at the "point" but you can experiment with different
sizes because vinyl is inexpensive. We put the VELCRO hook strip on the
vinyl side so it sticks leaving it an inch or so longer than the loop
strip on your helmet to facilitate removal by grabbing the strip rather
than the vinyl. This will keep the hook strip stuck on the vinyl because
there really is not much grip there depending on your vinyl type.

A few helpful items which keep you
warm
Seamless ski/Motorcycle Neck Tube
Warmers.<-click-<-If you buy a few of
these and stack them up your neck, they keep the area warm and toasty.
They can be worn in many ways as well. And, a balaclava worn under your
helmet adds to the warmth.

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The information on these pages is
accurate to the best of the author's knowledge. The
author can assume no responsibility for the use or misuse
of this information by the reader. The reader is expected
to secure any other information needed from Service
Manuals or other sources. It is up to the reader to
determine his/her ability to make any modifications
noted. If the reader does not feel qualified he/she
should enlist professional help.